The Ficlet Aggregation
by Kaia Mariacle
Summary: A series of ficlets I've written. None have anything to do with the others. warning: slash
1. Ambush

Seth was the kid in the back of the class. 

The one who never raised his hand, but the teacher called on anyway. He'd get nervous, and his voice would squeak, and he'd give the wrong answer. 

Even though he knew the right one.

Jocks jostled him when he walked down the hall, and flushed his head in the toilet between classes. Some girls grimaced when he walked by, but most never even looked. Summer fell into the latter category.

Summer was his obsession, his fixation, his first, last, and always crush. She was beautiful, of course, and had the brightest smile he'd ever seen.

Not that she ever gave it to him.

He'd named his boat after her, Summer's Breeze, and he always dreamed that one day she'd smile at him in the hallway, and he'd smile back. They'd eventually fall madly in love, and he'd take her on a trip to Tahiti, the two of them on the water in her namesake, living on fish and each other. 

But Seth knew that would never happen. He knew that she was unattainable, out of his reach. Too much like the rest to ever spare him a glance.

Because he was different. 

He knew it, and everyone around him knew it too.

But until Ryan Atwood stepped into his life, he hadn't known how much.

Seth was a geek, a loser, a reject in the eyes of all his peers. He'd come to accept those facts over the years. Even come to like himself somewhat.

He didn't want to be gay.


	2. Lingering

You linger, yet the time is short.... -Christina Rossetti, The Convent Threshold

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's time to go, bit adieu to one and all. 

The family that's kept you for the weekend, for less.

Beautiful mother, hair of gold thrumming with anxiety and softness. Eyes soft and sweet, hiding steel and iron. You're reminded of your mother, wonder if this woman hadn't grown up with such privilege, would she have met with the same fate?

Caring father, dark and joyful. You see a bit of yourself in his eyes, but when you enter his world, you know that he's miles away. He says he knows, he remembers, but when you notice the watch on his wrist -a Rolex, the car he drive's -a Lexus, and the mansion he lives in, you wonder if he ever had to worry.

Gentle, bitter son. He's unhappy with the life he leads, and the picture he makes. Welcomes you with open arms, as if you were a long-lost member of the family. He does not judge, does not care where you're from. 

His comfort of choice is the sea, and his poison an unrequited love. 

You watch him, drink him in quickly, because this might be the last memory you embrace before heading back into the shadows.

He's all eyes, all sharp angles and lines. 

And when you kiss him, taste him, he stares at you with wide, innocent eyes. Unknowing and unseeing as your hands travel down his body. Memorizing the curve of his shoulder, the ripples of his spine. 

The sand is cool under your feet, and you can hear the crowd of children closing in on you.

But you take your time when you kneel down in the sand and slowly unzip his pants. 

You learn how he feels gasping and straining to stay on his feet. How his hands curl into your hair, and his thighs quiver as he comes.

Still kneeling as he drops down in front of you, and tugs you to him. His breath is quick, and deep, he murmurs into your ear, and you can hear his breath slow as he whispers he's so glad you're here.

Then he drifts off to sleep.

You hold his words close to your heart, then tuck them away to savor later.

You know you should leave this place, bring him home. 

Instead, you stay, the sound of waves crashing behind you, and the soft caress of his breath on your neck.


	3. Roleplay

Ryan had a strange feeling that he'd walked into some disturbing version of Romeo and Juliet.

Orange County had beaches and dark, dank pool halls, maybe even a castle or two. Ryan wouldn't be surprised if Leonardo Dicaprio popped in out of the blue.

Seth, of course, was Romeo. 

He had the lovestruck countenance and the dopey grin. Maybe he hadn't even spoken to his Juliet yet, but his bumbling attempts were so sweet that anyone could see he really loved her.

Summer.

His eyebrows had met with his hairline when he'd first saw her, and both agreed that Summer didn't quite fit the angelic, virginal profile. Sure, she was attractive in a plastic sort of way, but her long, dark hair and pretty, brown eyes were too common to really stand out. 

However Seth had already cast her as Juliet, and there really wasn't anything Ryan could do about that. 

He could only step into the role he'd been given.

Mercutio.

Ryan didn't exactly fit the desired description either. He hadn't know Seth for all that long, and he didn't think he'd die for him. At least, not yet.

So when Seth chattered on and on about Summer, Ryan nodded, pretended interest, and wondered what the other boy's mouth would taste like.

Ryan didn't think that Mercutio was supposed to want to fuck Romeo.

But.....on the other hand, maybe he was.


	4. Subterfuge

There are times when he misses Chino.

He always knew who he was in the city he grew up in. He knew the apartment complex, three blocks down from his house, was really just dueling ground for a local gang.

That the woman across the street was in an abusive relationship with an ex-con. A huge man, with angry fists who beat her on the porch swing after she put too much sugar in his coffee.

He knew Jimmy Stars was a pimp, who visited his mom every Thursday night, and left bloodstains on the bedsheets, and thirty dollars on the coffee table. Thirty dollars that his stepfather used to get drunk every Friday afternoon.

Ryan knew every dark corner in Chino, because they were glaringly obvious.

It's not the same in Orange County.

There are no dark corners here.

Everything is hidden behind blinding, white smiles, and expensive clothes. When he shakes a man's hand, he wonders if it hit someone the night before. 

And when a woman takes a sip of her drink, he doesn't know if that mouth will be wrapped around the cock of the man standing next to her later, or her husband, who's standing at the bar staring down a server's blouse.

Sometimes, Ryan thinks he never should have come here.

Then a hand brushes against his elbow, curls around his wrist. 

Caressing.

He looks up, sees the warmth in Seth's eyes.

And knows that he made the right choice.


	5. Unlucky

Seth had never been very good with women (or...anything of the opposite gender actually, fish, birds, cats. They all hated him).

He'd thought it was a guy thing (or a Seth thing). The complete and total bafflement that he endured trying to figure them out. 

He never knew what to say, so he relied on his babbling to get through the conversation (he liked to think of babbling as his art.) That usually ended in rolling eyes, and the dreaded "You're a loser" glare. The doing was also doomed, seeing as he had two left feet when on steady ground, and he managed to knock things over at the drop of a hat.

Case in point -Summer (that beautiful, annoying girl).

But he'd thought it was just the women, until Ryan showed up in Chino. 

It hadn't happened with any guys before, and Seth thought that might be because all of Orange County -barring Seth, of course - was insane.

But in Ryan had walked, all hot and sexy in his wifebeater's and leather wristbands, and brooding. (he liked to think of Ryan as the phallic-shaped key that had opened the door to his hidden homosexuality). He didn't talk much, but that was okay, because Seth more than made up for it with his run on sentences (and insensate comments). And the silences were really comfortable (except when Seth imagined Ryan...doing stuff).

So Seth knew he wasn't good with the ladies, but he had no idea that trying to get the attention of another guy would be just as hard. 

Especially when he had no idea if said guy was into guys himself.

Guys named Seth.


End file.
